1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a novel apparatus for the automatic preparation of certain rolled foodstuffs which are conventionally manually formed. More particularly the invention concerns a unique apparatus for the high volume, fully automatic production of Mexican food products such as enchiladas, burritos and the like.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Certain rolled food products such as burritos, enchiladas, egg rolls, cabbage rolls, blintzes and the like are traditionally formed by hand immediately prior to cooking. Such foods have a common configuration which includes an outer wrap and a pliant inner filler. Due to the fragile nature of the outer wrap, such as the tortilla, few reliable mechanisms for automatically producing such rolled food products in large volume have been developed. Those which have been developed are expensive to construct and maintain and typically are of complicated design involving the use of many component parts.
The popularity of frozen foods, the spiraling cost of labor, the increased sanitary restrictions placed on food products and the great demand for rolled food products, particularly Mexican food products, has created a great demand for reliable, fully automatic food processing equipment. In response to this demand the unique apparatus of the present invention has been developed.
The basic objectives of the present invention is to provide a highly reliable fully automatic apparatus for processing rolled food products which overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art devices known to applicant.
The apparatus described in the following patents, which patents represent the most pertinent prior art known, serve to clearly demonstrate the novelty of the apparatus of the present invention:
______________________________________ Patent No. Inventor ______________________________________ 2,352,477 Powers 2,577,925 Sternbach 3,570,393 Schy 3,724,361 Schafer 3,757,676 Pomara ______________________________________